The Legacy of Ann Chipley

AAUW NC invites all members and branches to support the AAUW Educational Foundation endowment, honoring the late Ann Chipley. A past president of AAUW NC, she was one of our few state leaders who made the transition to an AAUW national leader, and at the time of her death in 1996, she was the AAUW Director of Public Policy. For a profile of this state and national leader, see http://bit.ly/thn-chipley99 .

Following her death the AAUW Educational Foundation Board set up an endowment in Chipley’s name to support AAUW Fellowships. We in AAUW NC are working very hard to reach the $100,000 goal ($9,000 left to go!) by May 2017 – the deadline when the fellowship funds in her name expire. Many of our current AAUW members never knew Ann Chipley. She was an active member of the Rocky Mount branch, and our state president in1980-82. However, there are those in our branches who do remember Ann as an outstanding leader and force to advance the AAUW public policy program.

To get a glimpse of this woman, please take a few minutes to read an excerpt from her address to the women at the New York State convention in 1987, printed on the back page 8 of this

Go Global NC

with speaker Carey Rudell

Learning to navigate a changing world is essential to North Carolina’s progress. Go Global NC, a non-partisan and nonprofit organization, empowers North Carolina citizens with the skills, understanding, connections, and knowledge to succeed in a global community. Go Global NC’s overseas and domestic programs deliver transformative learning experiences which help business, policy, and education leaders position North Carolina for economic success. Carey Rudell, program director of Go Global NC’s Global Leaders Program, will overview Go Global NC’s mission and initiatives and begin the conversation about possible partnership opportunities with AAUW . She will also introduce the 2017 Global Leaders Program which will take women legislators, business executives, and community leaders to Germany to study international best practices that increase women’s participation in the work force.

About the speaker: Before joining Go Global NC in 2016, Carey Rudell was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. In her most recent role at the State Department, she designed and managed International Visitor Leadership Programs (IVLP). Through IVLP, the State Department’s premier professional exchange program, foreign leaders examine U.S. approaches to international challenges and cultivate lasting relationships with their American counterparts. Carey previously served as the Portugal country desk officer, where she worked closely with the Department of Defense on the U.S. Air Force streamlining of its base in the Azores. Her first Foreign Service tour was in Mumbai, India, where she adjudicated nonimmigrant visas and provided consular services to U.S. citizens living and traveling in India.

The Power of Women: AAUW’s Grants, Fellowships & NEW Publication

In 2016, $3.7 million in funding for more than 230 fellowships & grants.

WHO gets funded? WHAT gets funded? What DIFFERENCE does it make?

Moderator: Terry Wall American Fellowship Recipient (1989-90)

Speakers:

(1) Beth DehghanProspective CAG Recipient (2017-2020)

Beth will describe two active Women NC projects and ask for feedback on how well each is aligned with aspects of the AAUW mission.

(2) Brandy Burnett Community Action Grant Recipient (2016-17)

Brandy successfully navigated the application process, tweaked her program to match goals laid out in her proposal, and is now making scheduled reports to AAUW. She’ll describe lessons learned to date.

You Can Vote

Get an expert briefing on voting laws

Kate Fellman is the Program Director for You Can Vote. She has trained and mobilized over 650 volunteers in 2016 to educate 100,000 voters at a time when changes in the laws can be overwhelming. Kate has over 15 years of experience in community organizing and electoral politics.

YOU CAN VOTE is a non-partisan grassroots effort to Educate, Empower and EQUIP those eligible to vote in North Carolina. This volunteer coalition was formed by citizens and civic groups who wanted to ensure North Carolinians were prepared to vote and not disenfranchised as a result of multiple changes to our voting laws.

Ms. Fellman will facilitate a training for AAUW’s Raleigh-Wake branch. We are honored that she is investing her time and expertise so that we can ensure the education and registration of more voters before the general election in November.

Congratulations to our Brandy Burnett

Community Action Grants provide funds to individuals, AAUW branches, and AAUW state organizations as well as local community-based nonprofit organizations for innovative programs or non-degree research projects that promote education and equality for women and girls.

Through Smart Girls Smart Choices, Inc. the goal is to provide girls with the opportunity to participate in workshops specifically designed to spark an interest in math, science, and technology, field trips, guest speakers and interactive contact with innovators to broaden the scope of interest and ambitions. The balancing influences of meeting and interacting with high achieving women can help girls discover and take seriously their own passions. Goals will be meet through consistent participation in interactive workshops, monthly face to face contact and engagement with mentors, who will include project staff, AAUW members, workshop presenters, community partners and members of the business and professional sector. http://www.smartgirlssmartchoices.com/index.html

Smart Girls Smart Choices, Inc. has been selected to receive an AAUW community Action Grant for the 2016-2017 award year. Founded in 1881, AAUW is one of the world’s largest sources of funding for graduate women, due to the generosity and legacy of generations of AAUW members. AAUW has chosen to fund this project because of the promise it holds for empowering women and girls.

Laundromat Project

with speaker Dr. Christine Ganis, President

Southern Pines/Sandhill Branch

Laundromats can be boring places for kids, except in Moore County since 2014. The Southern Pines/Sandhills Branch of AAUW, advocated for early literacy by providing over 4,000 books in three locations, including two laundromats. Branch President, Dr. Christine Ganis, a psychologist, saw an opportunity in a local laundromat when children had nothing to do. What they did do was whine to their caretakers that they were bored, and push each other in carts, to the annoyance of patrons. Ganis reasoned, “If these kids had age-appropriate books to read, and could even keep them if they liked the subject, all the better.” So the branch embarked on a pilot project, using consignment books and small donations to fuel their efforts. Dr. Ganis will share her story with us and give us some food for good fodder as we continue to empower the young adults in our community.

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)

with speaker Tara Romano, president of NC Women United

and Sara Cross of SURJ

This month’s program portion features Tara Romano, who will make an informative–and possibly challenging—address. Tara is president of NC Women United (NCWU)–a visible and effective proponent of activism for women’s issues. You can read NCWU’s March newsletter by clicking on the link HERE.

Tara will encourage our branch to join a new movement called Showing Up for Racial Justice (or SURJ), showingupforracialjustice.org. Through membership in SURJ, Tara and fellow members promote action that challenges racial injustice and more.

There is a recent online article that Tara wrote in the last few days on the subject of the disagreements over Charlotte’s anti-discrimination laws. Click the link to read a fair and informative account of the controversy over the Charlotte ordinance.

SURJ is a national organization with about 100 chapters: “SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves White people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability. We work to connect people across the country while supporting and collaborating with local and national racial justice organizing efforts. SURJ provides a space to build relationships, skills and political analysis to act for change.”; The six core values are: calling people in, not calling out; taking risks, learning and keeping going; tap into mutual interest; accountability through collective action; enough for everyone; growing is good. SURJ helps people educate themselves about racism through workshops provided by OAR, Organizing Against Racism, oarnc.org. They also sponsor a book club and living room conversations.

We are delighted that Tara and Sara will join us and hope that you will be present. Bring a friend. Tara’s address will be another in a series of memorable programs we have enjoyed this year.

A STE(A)M Education:Exploring the value of the arts in a science, technology, engineering and math curriculum.

with speakerIan Finley

Hear what an entertaining & talented local arts educator believes about how arts experience provides a crucible that imparts a variety of technical skills. He argues that arts education also introduces alternative measures for what constitutes success—i.e., not just a career but a purposeful life.

The Information Age is hardly a thing of the past, but ways of preparing students to perform in that world are taking a new shape. Technical skills are simply not enough to equip graduates for the reality that they must also demonstrate the time-honored arts of interpersonal communication and personal reflection. One of the most effective means of introducing such innovation into education is the infusion of a significant arts component into today’s typical curriculum.

Arts courses and hands-on experience, valuable in themselves, also provide an experimental crucible for acquiring a wide spectrum of technological abilities. And perhaps even more powerfully persuasive to educational reformers and students alike, the arts provide not just the skills for success, but an alternative measure of success–a path not only to a career but to a purposeful life.

IAN FINLEY holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, where he was awarded the Harry Kondoleon prize for playwriting. Currently, Ian serves as the Chair of Fine Arts at Research Triangle High School.